


Please Let Him Be Soft

by DarkWolf



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Defense Squad, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9158080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWolf/pseuds/DarkWolf
Summary: Inspired by the poem "Please, let him be happy" by Tumblr user pencapPepper reflects on her relationship with Tony and what she wants post Civil War.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post on tumblr http://knightinironarmor.tumblr.com/post/155232565130/shawarmaholics-youre-all-i-have-too-you-know
> 
> Poem found here http://pencap.tumblr.com/post/152685439505/please-let-him-be-soft-i-know-you-made-him

_Please let him be soft_

Pepper finds him crumpled on the floor of the workshop in the tower. The shield that nearly crushed his chest gripped in his lap as he stares at it with dead eyes. All it took was a single call from Vision and she came back. She would always come back to him. It took nearly losing him again, not this time to some madman with a grudge but to a man that should have been his friend, for her to realize it.

_I know you made him_  
      _with gunmetal bones_  
_and wolf’s teeth._  
_I know you made him to be_  
_a warrior_  
_a soldier_  
_a hero._

She had been a fool to want to change him. He loves her, faults and all, and she will do the same. Before that call from Vision, she didn’t think she was strong enough to watch him fight anymore. But now she knows better. 

_But even gunmetal can warp_  
_and even wolf’s teeth can dull_  
_and I do not want to see him break_  
_the way old and worn and overused things do._

_I do not want to see him go up in flames  
     the way all heroes end up martyrs._

It had been hard enough to stand by him when he partied away his life and she stood on the sidelines taking out the trash. It was even harder loving him as more than just a friend and watching him risk his life for the world. But if Pepper could handle the years of drunken shenanigans and a revolving door of women and men, then she can handle loving a hero.

_I know that you will tell me_  
_that the world needs him._  
_The world needs his heart_  
_and his faith_  
_and his courage_  
_and his strength_  
_and his bones and his teeth and his blood and his voice and his–_  
_The world needs anything he will give them._

And Tony is a hero. He will never admit to it. Will own the title genius, playboy, philanthropist; but never hero. It was never a title he would give himself, and that is the man she loves. A man that would give so much of himself, without expecting a bit in return. A man that always owns his mistakes, even if no one but a handful of people understood that everything he did now, was to repent for all the lives he inadvertently took in the past.

_Damn the world,_  
    _and damn you too._  
_Damn anyone that ever asked anything of him,_  
_damn anyone that ever took anything from him,_  
_damn anyone that ever prayed to his name._

It was a fucking travesty that so few took the time to appreciate the man behind the armor. Pepper understood why the press so freely ignored all the good Tony did, while exacerbating the bad, but she expected more from the Avengers. They were supposed to be his team. His second family. A group of people with their own sordid past and cabinets full of issues for him to bond and fight with, but they were the same as the rest of the world. Willing to take Tony’s weapons and money, but unwilling to get to know the man would who gave to them his everything.

_You know that he will give them everything_  
  _until there is nothing left of him_  
_but the imprint of dust_  
_where his feet once trod._  
_You know that he will bear the world like Atlas_  
_until his shoulders collapse_  
_and his knees buckle_  
_and he is crushed by all he used to carry._

Pepper knew that after Ultron everything was not okay with the Avengers. They were so willing to let all the blame fall on Tony’s shoulder and he was more than happy to carry it. And she got it. Tony was always one to shoulder the blame, would never want to push it off onto a young girl who blamed Tony, wrongly, for her parents’ death and was still morning her brother. What she did not understand was the Avengers so easily accepting Wanda into their ranks when she had been the one to push Tony into creating Ultron in the first place and had voluntarily worked for Hydra. In the end Steve’s betrayal should not have surprised her as much as it did.

_Dear God,_  
_you have already made an Atlas._  
 _You have already made an Achilles and an Icarus and a Hercules._  
 _You have already made a sacrificial lamb of your Son._  
 _You have already made so many heroes,_  
 _and you can make another again._  
  
When she left him, it was with the belief that he was surrounded by friends. Even with Tony no longer being an active Avenger he still kept in contact with them and visited the compound on a regular basis to update their equipment. Pepper thought Steve was Tony’s friend. So she left for the rebuilt mansion in Malibu to put a bit of space between her and Tony. To give them both time away from one another to get a bit of perspective. And in the end she found what she needed.

_You can have your pick of heroes._

_So please, I beg you–_  
_he is all that I have,_  
_and you have so many heroes_  
_and the world has so many more._

That call from Vision showed her one thing. She was strong enough, as long as she knew Tony would turn to her when everything became too much to handle on his own. If hers were the arms he found sanctuary in when the world was falling apart around them, then that was enough for her. That was all she really needed.

“Come on Tony.” She spoke softly as she knelt down next to him, and gently pries the shield from his fingers.

“Pepper,” Tony calls out softly, almost like he doesn’t believe she is here.

She guides him off the floor and towards the elevator. “Yeah, now lets go to bed. It’s been a long few days.”

His laugh is wet with tears, but he doesn’t let her go and continues to hold her even as they get into bed. Pepper doesn’t sleep a wink that night, just so she can watch over him as he rests. His one eye is still bruised and his skin is pale, but he is here and whole, and within no time she will have him once again smiling and laughing as they sort out the accords and deal with Ross. Together.

_Let him be soft,_

_and let him be mine._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
